Blender with elevator assembly and removable spindle

Abstract

A blender for home or commercial use that is rugged enough to blend frozen beverages, simple to use and safe. The blender includes an upper housing with a front housing door that covers the moving blending machinery. The blender also includes a cupholder receiving area which allows the user to safely insert a frozen food or beverage cup inside a cupholder for blending. After the start button is pressed, the cup and cupholder will be lifted together for blending in a balanced, linear motion by an elevator assembly. Dual lead screws or a dual belt drive are preferably used in the elevator assembly to achieve this balanced, linear motion. As the cupholder is lifted upward, a cover will be pressed over the top opening of the inserted cup to prevent spillage during blending. The elevator assembly continues to lift the cupholder upward until the rotating cutter blades of a spindle assembly cut through successive layers of the frozen food or beverage. To facilitate cleaning, the spindle assembly is preferably removable from the blender through use of a quick release coupling mechanism.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 533,922, entitled “Compact Blender For Frozen Beverages”, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 533,928 entitled “Removable Blender Spindle With Container Cover”, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 533,938 entitled “Method For Blending Food Or Beverages” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 533,950 entitled “Removable Cupholder For Compact Blender”, all filed on Jun. 26, 2012. All of the preceding applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to food preparation machines, particularly electrical blenders for preparing smoothies, milkshakes, protein shakes and other blended beverages.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Blended fruit smoothies, milkshakes and protein shakes are becoming increasingly popular among health conscious people. In these blended dri...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is a blender that is compact, durable, and safe for both home and commercial use. It is designed to blend frozen beverages and is easy to use and clean. The blender includes an upper housing with a front housing door that covers the moving blending machinery to prevent injury. It also has a cupholder receiving area that allows for the safe insertion of frozen beverage cups. The blender has multiple start buttons to achieve different consistencies for the smoothie / milkshake. The elevator assembly raises and lowers the cupholder multiple times while the rotating cutter blades are in operation. The blender also has sensors and switches to ensure the cupholder is properly positioned and the front housing door is closed before the rotating cutter blades start moving. The spindle assembly can be easily removed for cleaning by turning a quick release coupling member and pulling it downward or using a pivotable lever to detach it from the blender. The cupholder is removable and has a cylindrical body with a bottom and open top, with a removable upper lip that can be easily inserted and removed.

Problems solved by technology

While it is advantageous to blend carefully selected ingredients at the peak of their freshness, it is often not practical to do so.

Moreover, working with fresh fruits and vegetables usually generates organic wastes, is often messy and inevitably requires clean up.

This means a lot of time and attention.

Nonetheless, creating a smoothie / milkshake blender for home use poses a much different set of design problems than creating a smoothie / milkshake blender for commercial use.

For example, space is often in short supply inside a kitchen at home.

By contrast, such a heavy duty, stainless steel blender would be too expensive for most homeowners.

This is also true in some commercial settings where space is at a premium and money is tight.

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